Probing phonon-assisted optical transitions in hexagonal boron nitride
Résumé
I will discuss our recent studies showing that the optical response in hBN displays prominent evidence for phonon-assisted optical transitions. First of all, by two-photon spectroscopy, we have demonstrated that the intrinsic optical properties at the band edge are characteristic of an indirect bandgap material. I will further discuss our experimental evidence that transverse optical phonons at the K point of the Brillouin zone assist inter-K valley scattering in hexagonal boron nitride, thanks to the presence of a density of final electronic states coming from extended stacking faults. Finally, I will present our measurements of the vibronic spectrum in a point defect in hBN, displaying a remarkable mapping with the phonon density of states, and in particular a suppression of the phonon-assisted recombination signal at the phonon gap energy.